Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 by Russ Fischer
Is Beautiful Creatures the next Twilight? The film is a YA tale of a battle between good and evil supernatural forces, focused around the adolescence of a young witch, Lena (Alice Englert), whose powers will be claimed either for the light or dark when she hits her 16th birthday.
The film adapts Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl‘s novel of the same name (the first of a multi-book arc, naturally) and if this new footage is anything to go by the movie definitely has a chance at, um, eclipsing Twilight. Not in the supernatural teen romance category, but for pure “WTF?” factor. A new international trailer runs down a good bit of the story, and also makes the film look like a campy, kooky mess. Some of the “southern” accents here are just marvelous, and for a movie about witches there’s a hell of a lot of vamping going on. I don’t care why Emmy Rossum is screaming towards the end of the trailer; I just want to loop that moment. Read More »
We’ve got a hodgepodge of new images after the jump, including set photos from Robocop and The Wolverine, stills from Hitchcock and Beautiful Creatures, and even a snapshot of the National Lampoon’s Vacation cast, reunited.
Posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 by Angie Han
Speculation over which YA property would become the next Twilight has been swirling for some time now — since the first film hit theaters in 2008, really. But with the beloved vampire series finally poised to come to a close this fall, the timing is now more ripe than ever for some other pair of star-crossed paranormal teenager lovers to swoop in and take Edward and Bella’s place.
Among the contenders are Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) and Lena (Alice Englert) of Beautiful Creatures, Richard LaGravenese‘s adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl‘s bestselling novel. This time around, it’s the guy who’s the clueless human newcomer, and the girl who’s the mysterious, supernatural local. The surprisingly strong supporting cast includes Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, and Emmy Rossum. Watch the new trailer after the jump.
Posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 by Russ Fischer
Michael Peña has called labor organizer Cesar Chavez his dream role, and now the actor is set to play the part in Chavez, which will be produced and directed by Diego Luna. That’s a great step up from supporting roles in films like Battle: Los Angeles, Tower Heist and The Lincoln Lawyer.
Peña will be joined by America Ferrera as Helen Chavez, and Rosario Dawson as Dolores Huerta. Variety says the film, scripted by Keir Pearson, “depicts Chavez organizing the largest non-violent protest in U.S. history to accomplish his ultimate goal of obtaining basic human rights for over 50,000 farm workers in California.”
Chavez will start shooting in Sonora, Mexico in April. Gael Garcia Bernal and John Malkovich are also among the film’s producers. This is Luna’s second film about a public figure, as his first directorial effort was the documentary J.C. Chavez, about Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez.
After the break, Jennifer Beals produces and stars in a jazz-themed indie called The Lord of Vinyl, and the supernatural YA adaptation Beautiful Creatures gets a little addition from Project X. Read More »
Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba have boarded No Good Deed, a thriller written by Aimee Lagos (96 Minutes) and directed by Sam Miller (Luther). The Screen Gems project centers around a district attorney who gives up her career to stay at home with her two young children. When a tall, dark, and handsome stranger shows up claiming to have car trouble, she invites him into her home, only for him to kidnap and terrorize her and her family.
Though neither Variety nor THR confirm which character each will be playing, we can probably assume that Henson will be the mom and Elba the charming but dangerous stranger. The film marks Elba’s third time working with Screen Gems, having previously made Takers and Obsessed for the studio. Not such an auspicious track record, but for the sake of these talented actors let’s hope for the best.
After the jump, Nicole Kidman subs in for Rachel Weisz, and Emmy Rossum is a beautiful creature.
Posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 by Angie Han
Plenty of offices around the country have already begun winding down for the holidays, but apparently Showtime and HBO had a few things to get out of the way first. Meanwhile, Fox is still holding out on a decision on Terra Nova til the new year — though the producers are apparently feeling optimistic. After the jump:
HBO renews Enlightened, axes Bored to Death, Hung, and How to Make It in America
Showtime drops a trailer for Shameless Season 2
Dexter showrunner Scott Buck talks about the finale’s climactic moments
Homeland exec producers discuss the tense first season finale
Terra Nova producers are “guardedly optimistic” about the show’s chances for a second season
There’s some bad and some good in today’s TV Bits, but I’d say there’s more of the latter — more Shameless, more Homeland, more Jennifer Coolidge, and Olga Kurylenko in late ’50s Miami all count as pluses, right? After the jump:
Showtime’s Shameless get a Season 2 trailer — and invites fans to play Truth or Dare with one of the characters
Starz debuts a trailer for Magic City, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, and Danny Huston
CBS gives full season orders to Unforgettable and Person of Interest
Showtime renews freshman series Homeland
Jennifer Coolidge signs on for CBS’ 2 Broke Girls
Jenna Elfman boards the fifth season of DirecTV’s Damages
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
The Damned United Trailer
The one name I will always remember from the trip I took to Ireland in 2002 is Roy Keane. Part of Ireland’s soccer team, he caused quite a kerfuffle when he spoke out about Irish players being treated unfairly during their run for the 2002 World Cup. It led newscasts, it was on every paper and it was the subject people most wanted talk about. I learned a lot about football/soccer on that holiday as I saw people’s home adorned in green, white, and orange bunting as if Christmas really was coming in June.
I know how this sport can grip an entire country and this trailer gets that passion down on film. Read More »
